As a bit of light relief for a Friday afternoon... the indomitable Professor Gary Slapper in the Times gave me cause to laugh last week.

Whilst we in UK are getting our proverbial knickers in a twist in what the a member of the Government may or may not have said to a policeman outside 10 Downing Street, compare this alleged outburst with that from a member of the judiciary...

.. Ok the American judiciary – or more specifically, the Honourable James Patrick Sharp, Jr of the Texas First Court of Appeal.

Justice Sharp was recently reprimanded by The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct after he tried inappropriately to secure the release of a daughter of his friend from overnight detention. She had been arrested for alleged shoplifting and Justice Sharp must have thought the time had come for some sharp justice (sorry) when he obliged the girl’s mother by attempting to use his judicial weight to secure her release from the county juvenile detention centre.

Choice quotes included:

“Your county is going to be sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars for this. You’ll have picked the wrong little girl that has friends in high places to mess with.”

“Well, I can tell you this, things are about to change in Brazoria County. You guys are a bunch of back woods hillbillies that use screwed up methods in dealing with children.”

And possibly the most erudite of all, when referring to a particular detention officer:

“If I had had a baseball bat…that son of a b**ch would have been cracked upside the head. F***ing little c***sucker.”